OBITUARY | Baseball Great Shigeo Nagashima Dies at 89

Yomiuri Giants legend Shigeo Nagashima, a prolific winner during his pro baseball career and a national icon for decades, died on Tuesday morning, June 3 of pneumonia at a Tokyo hospital. He was 89.

A native of Usui (now known as Sakura), Chiba Prefecture, Nagashima spent his entire career with the Giants, first as a player, then as a manager. He later became the storied franchise's lifetime honorary manager.

Known as "Mr. Giants," Nagashima won the Central League Rookie of the Year honor in 1958. As a rookie, he led the league in home runs (29) and RBIs (92). He also hit .305 and stole 37 bases that year.

Three years later, he helped lead Yomiuri to his first of 11 Japan Series titles as a player.

As manager, Nagashima guided the Giants to Japan Series crowns in 1994 and 2000 during his second stint in charge (1993-2001). He also led the team from 1975-80 as dugout boss.

*Yomiuri manager Shigeo Nagashima receives the victory toss after the team's 1994 Japan Series-clinching victory. (©SANKEI)*

After attending Rikkyo University and playing for the school's baseball team, Nagashima made an instant impact as a 22-year-old rookie. He thrived in the spotlight. As the Giants' cleanup hitter, he batted one spot in the lineup behind all-time home-run king Sadaharu Oh. They were ubiquitously nicknamed "O-N" during Yomiuri's V-9 dynasty years ― when the Giants won nine consecutive Japan Series titles from 1965-73.

A Remarkable List of Achievements

Nagashima was a five-time Central League MVP and received four Japan Series MVP accolades. He also won six CL batting titles and led the league in RBIs in five seasons.

When he retired at age 38 in 1974, he had played in 2,186 regular-season games, smacking 444 home runs and recording 1,522 RBIs. He had a .305 career batting average and scored 1,270 runs.

Nagashima was a mainstay in the team's lineup for 17 seasons, a durable athlete who played 120-plus games every year.

He was a 17-time CL Best Nine Award recipient at third base.

Moreover, Nagashima transcended any so-called normal levels of celebrity status.

Nagashima was "the most beloved sports figure in the land," best-selling author Robert Whiting observed in a 1977 article he penned for Sports Illustrated.

In his memoir, Tokyo Junkie: 60 Years of Bright Lights and Back Alleys . . . and Baseball, published in 2021, Whiting described Nagashima as a "national heartthrob."

The longtime baseball writer also recalled that "he swung so fiercely and fielded his position so aggressively the shortstop was almost unnecessary."

A Moment Etched in National History

On June 25, 1959, Emperor Hirohito (posthumously known as Emperor Showa) and his wife, Empress Nagako (known as Empress Kojun after she passed away), attended a pro baseball game for the first time.

In fact, it marked the first time a Japanese emperor had attended a pro game.

On that night, the Yomiuri Giants faced the Osaka (now Hanshin) Tigers at Korakuen Stadium in the nation's capital.

With the score tied 4-4 in the bottom of the ninth inning, Nagashima stepped to the plate as the leadoff hitter. He crushed a high fastball from Tigers rookie Minoru Murayama over the left-field wall at 9:12 PM. It's a moment etched in time in the national heartbeat of Japan.

In a December 2014 interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Giants' inception, Nagashima described his game-winning blast off Murayama as the most memorable moment of his baseball career.

"More than anything else, the game played in the presence of the Emperor comes first to my mind," Nagashima was quoted as saying. "After all, it's probably the game most often noted in the 80-year history [of the Giants]."

In the interview, the Japanese superstar provided insightful context to what happened that night at Korakuen Stadium.

"In our time, the Emperor was revered as something like a god," Nagashima remembered, according to The Yomiuri Shimbun. "He was coming to see a pro baseball game for the first time. The players, the manager and coaches all talked about playing before the Emperor. We were nervous the whole time. We had never experienced such nerves in other games."

The Impact of That Game

With the Emperor and the Empress in attendance on that June night in 1959, pro baseball gained respectability in his homeland, Shigeo Nagashima, aka "Mr Pro Baseball," said decades later.

"In an era when professional baseball was looked down upon as 'professional baseball,' " Nagashima stated in a 2015 interview with The Sankei Shimbun, "there was an atmosphere at the time that the Emperor and Empress would not watch baseball. They did come to watch sumo, but I didn't think baseball was possible. I had always hoped that somehow, just once."

And for the rest of his life, Nagashima's most famous home run was a source of national pride, something deeply attached to Japanese culture, too.

Yomiuri retired Nagashima's No 3 jersey. He was inducted into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in 1988.

Decades later, Nagashima was honored for his lasting impact on society.

In 2013, he shared the spotlight with former Yomiuri and MLB slugger Hideki Matsui, who thrived under his tutelage, when they were presented the People's Honor Award by then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Nagashima received the Order of Culture in 2021. No baseball player had previously won the prestigious award, which was established in 1937.

Health Setbacks for Shigeo Nagashima

He was supposed to manage the Japan national team at the 2004 Athens Olympics, but due to a stroke that March that caused partial paralysis, he had to step down from his leadership post.

In his later years, Nagashima coped with various health problems, including gallstones in 2018. And he needed to use a wheelchair at times.

He was also rushed to a Tokyo hospital in September 2022 after suffering from a mild brain hemorrhage.

One of the last high-profile public appearances of Nagashima's life occurred on July 23, 2021, at the Opening Ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics. In a moving scene at National Stadium, he was a torchbearer alongside Matsui and Oh, the three Giants icons walking together.

Reporting on the Opening Ceremony, JAPAN Forward observed, "Matsui, 2009 World Series MVP, helped Nagashima, 85, keep his balance in a touching moment of pupil keeping watch over his beloved mentor."

Paying Tribute to Shigeo Nagashima

In an interview with Kyodo News on the day of Nagashima's passing, Oh spoke about his former teammate's indomitable character.

"I couldn't match him at all in terms of presence, so I had to show it with my bat," Oh said. "I could only compete with him with my numbers. Shigeo Nagashima was the man inside the head of every pro baseball player."

Tatsunori Hara, who succeeded Nagashima as Giants manager in 2002, remembered his baseball hero as a lionized figure.

"I knew that this day would come," Hara said of Nagashima's passing, NHK reported. "For me, he was the man I had admired since I was a boy. He was strict about competition, kind to others, and loved by everyone."

Hiroshima Carp great Koji Yamamoto (1969-86), who slugged 536 homers in his Hall of Fame career and later had two stints as team manager, said he was in awe of Nagashima's batting skills.

"I admired him and his ideal hitting form, the way he stepped out of his stance and took a pause before going to hit," Yamamoto, also a right-handed batter, said, according to NHK.

Speaking before a New York Mets-Los Angeles Dodgers game on June 2 at Dodger Stadium, Mets pitcher Kodai Senga reflected on Nagashima's life and legacy.

"I think he was one of the leaders of the baseball world," Senga, 32, said, according to NHK.

Senga added, "I don't know him personally, but I believe that the present-day baseball world was built in no small part by the generation of legends like Mr Nagashima. I am at a loss for words, [and] I pray for his soul to rest in peace."

Author: Ed Odeven

Find Ed on JAPAN Forward's dedicated website, SportsLook. Follow his [Japan Sports Notebook] on Sundays, [Odds and Evens] during the week, and X (formerly Twitter) ＠ed_odeven.